WHAT WAS THAT?! Oh...never Mind...

Have you ever had one of those moments in your RV (or other airplane) where for a brief moment, you were so shocked, surprised, (terrified?) that a year's worth of adrenaline went through your system in a moment...and it turned out that in fact, nothing serious was actually wrong?

An example. Years ago, I was climbing through 9,000' in my big-engined Yankee (think RV-6a with poor performance) on an IFR flight plan when the cockpit was filled with a huge, sudden, loud BANG! Thinking I'd just blown a jug off the engine, I pushed over to keep from losing airspeed, thinking I was about to be flying an IFR glider , and started scanning the engine gauges. To my utter amazement, everything was normal - no loss of RPM, oil pressure and temperature were good, voltage...and the airplane was still flying. I slowly resumed my climb, and got my heart rate under control, trying to figure out what had just happened. All the windows were in place, no structure seem cracked - and then I remembered a bag of stuff that my mom had put in the baggage area behind the seats. One things in there was a mylar balloon. Now those things don't stretch like a vinyl balloon - they just over pressurize until the suddenly blow a seam! Wow - what a lesson! They were permanently added to my banned cargo list...

See the kind of story I mean? It might be useful for everyone to collect those kind of stories - things that scared us half to death, but turned out to be nothing. Instrumentation failures? running into a bunch of toy balloons? This is the safety section, and all the folks up north are complaining because the weather is too lousy to fly - so how about some hangar flying - lets see what we can collect!

Paul

Maybe not a year's worth of adrenaline producer, but we always puncture any chip bags or similar with a pin and put scotch tape over the hole when we know we will be climbing up to altitude for a cross country flight. The first time this happened it was exciting, maybe not mylar quality, but attention getting never the less.

Flying CC at night, over a populated area near KC. Cabin air got hot, temp gages all climbed up, water temp climbed (Rotax 912S) CHT's, cabin is actually hot now, no smoke, but defenately got my attention. Did an emergency / precautionary landing only to figure out I flew into a warm air mass. Outside air must have changed 30F in 20 miles.

My story doesn't top the mylar balloon story though! The thinner air caused the ballon to expand & explode.

There I was...over the Rockies at 12,500'....

...on my first trip to Homecoming in my RV. Scott Toornburg was my passenger. We're flying along dumb and happy when I rest my arm on the left armrest (and my glove starts pushing the trim switch which is located there). About two seconds later the plane was pointed up any my heart rate went to about 200, as I'd thought the tail had just departed the aircraft. .

Later in the flight Scott opened a red Gatorade bottle at altitude and got it all over his face and the canopy. Priceless!

b,
dr

Balloons at altitude...

Ironflight said:

..... running into a bunch of toy balloons? ....

Click to expand...

Yep.. almost happened in my sailplane when I was 17,000 ft over the San Bernadino mountains in wave lift...

It was a very large, colorful bunch and I was downwind of Disney Land - so I sort of presume that's where they came from. Even though I was 30 miles from there, the winds aloft were about 45 kts. and gusty surface winds could have blown them free.

Close enough I was preparing evasive action for an unknown object coming straight at me.... ...and then laughed when I identified them..

My only UFO encounter....

gil A

Similar here Paul. When I heard the bang it scared me, but I knew I had to act casual about it so it wouldn't scare my wife. I slowly scanned the guages and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Then bang, it got me again. This time I looked at the wings, the tail, the gauges, and was getting kind of worried when I finally looked at her and she had grabbed a few potato chips from one of the now open bags and was having a snack.

Best,

Ironflight said:

Have you ever had one of those moments in your RV (or other airplane) where for a brief moment, you were so shocked, surprised, (terrified?) that a year's worth of adrenaline went through your system in a moment...and it turned out that in fact, nothing serious was actually wrong?

An example. Years ago, I was climbing through 9,000' in my big-engined Yankee (think RV-6a with poor performance) on an IFR flight plan when the cockpit was filled with a huge, sudden, loud BANG! Thinking I'd just blown a jug off the engine, I pushed over to keep from losing airspeed, thinking I was about to be flying an IFR glider , and started scanning the engine gauges. To my utter amazement, everything was normal - no loss of RPM, oil pressure and temperature were good, voltage...and the airplane was still flying. I slowly resumed my climb, and got my heart rate under control, trying to figure out what had just happened. All the windows were in place, no structure seem cracked - and then I remembered a bag of stuff that my mom had put in the baggage area behind the seats. One things in there was a mylar balloon. Now those things don't stretch like a vinyl balloon - they just over pressurize until the suddenly blow a seam! Wow - what a lesson! They were permanently added to my banned cargo list...

See the kind of story I mean? It might be useful for everyone to collect those kind of stories - things that scared us half to death, but turned out to be nothing. Instrumentation failures? running into a bunch of toy balloons? This is the safety section, and all the folks up north are complaining because the weather is too lousy to fly - so how about some hangar flying - lets see what we can collect!

Paul

Click to expand...

az_gila said:

Yep.. almost happened in my sailplane when I was 17,000 ft over the San Bernadino mountains in wave lift......

Click to expand...

Interesting what you see in thermals. I have seen a lot of plastic grocery bags and balloons.

What really startled me though, was corn leaves in the Dallas area. When the first ones whizzed by I thought it was traffic, but later it was helpful to see the whole thermal structure in corn leaves.

During the first flight in my newly purchased RV6, my girlfriend (now wife) and I left Okeechobee Airport just before dusk headed for Pompano Beach. As the sun began to set, I turned on the nav lights as well as the instrument lighting. About a minute later as we leveled off at 5500 feet, I glanced over at the engine instruments and saw the oil pressure down in the yellow...WAAAAY down in the yellow. Without batting an eye, I rolled the airplane into a steep bank, pointed the nose down, and headed back to OBE. While looking for alternate landing spots in case the engine seized, I looked down and noticed the oil temperature was also low, as well as the fuel guages. That seemed kind of odd. Then I thought back to my instructor days. The Tomahawk I used to fly would get messed up engine instruments when I turned on the landing light. Maybe this airplane is doing that too? I shut of the nav lights, but nothing happened. However, when I dimmed the instrument lights, the engine guages returned to normal. After taking a few deep breaths, and reassuring my girlfriend, we turned around and headed for home.

One night on a cross country, all alone several years ago about one hour into the trip with clear cold skies and enjoying a nice ride I thought I had been sent for. A cat came out of the baggage area from behind me and stepped out on to my shoulder. Now that got my attention and that was a major adrenalin rush. Now I always check for uninvited passengers. Never did find the owner of the cat.

One night flying back home from Llano at about 5500', a massive bright flash flew right overhead at an incredible speed from behind and lit up the night sky. I immediately took evasive action (turn/roll and dive). I think I probably well tested the G limits of a -9A that night. Just as soon as the cockpit was lit up, it was dark again. I quickly returned to stable level flight. Luckily I had no passengers at the time. After a few more seconds to be sure I was still in control and alive, I concluded that something had entered the atmosphere right overhead and burned up. This was definitely a first for me and not something I will soon forget. All was good after another 30-60sec with a quick check of the seat moisture level and the heart rate was calmed. Upon landing back home, I felt privileged to experience something new that I never would have dreamed of.

scard said:

One night flying back home from Llano at about 5500', a massive bright flash flew right overhead at an incredible speed from behind and lit up the night sky...

Click to expand...

Ok, this one is off topic, but it does relate to Scott's post in a sorta "you think that is somethin" vein.

Several years ago I was a passenger in a Piper Cherokee (Louise Hose's old airplane) headed to a fly-in in broad daylight in the summer around 8 AM. I suddenly saw a bolide trail ahead, through the cirrus overcast. I sort of commandeered the controls to turn the airplane toward where the track intersected the horizon, for a bearing. I thought it might help in any search for meteorites.

Turned out that wasn't necessary as some of the pieces fell into a barn and others fell into a woman's kitchen as she was having coffee.

Because of the cirrus, I estimated the meteor hit about 20 miles from me, it turned out to be over a hundred miles away near Portales, NM. Got my picture in Astronomy Magazine over that one. Pretty impressive show.

Oh S***!

I didn't have a close encounter with balloons, bags or a stowaway feline but I did once come within feet of performing a one wheel touch-and-go off the top of a C-152 at 3000' while heading in opposite directions. I must ashamedly admit that I did, in fact, pee a little bit as I nearly pulled the yoke out of the panel. Don't laugh, you would have too. The other pilot, wearing a blue shirt, a Red Sox baseball cap, and DC headsets, never took his eyes off his panel. Lesson learned? Flight following is NO guarantee of a safe flight and collision avoidance is ultimately MY responsibility as a pilot.

Pringles & wing root seals

Had a can of Pringles blow the lid off. Not sure what was worse, the noise or the lid ricocheting around the cabin.

Worse than that though was when the wing root seal on my Cherokee peeled back beginning at the front and beat the heck out of the floor right under my wife's seat before it finally tore loose and dropped away. I didn't think I was going to live to get the airplane on the ground 'cause she was about to kill me. We both thought we were toast for a minute or two. Sounded like the wing on her side was ripping off the airplane or something.

The bag of chips in the back should be part of our private pilot check ride, because it has happened to so many of us.

Another one that got my head a turning, was while on final approach, I heard a loud beeping sound, it was my pager from work. It is a familar sound that has awoken me many times at night for emergency call backs . But this time my brain convinced me it was some kind of alert coming from the aircraft that needed prompt action. It took a few seconds to scan the panel to understand that the aircraft was ok, and what the source of the sound was. Back then I was working Robbery and just hearing the pager go off while standing around would cause an adrenaline dump.

Everyone's story is of something making extra noise. Mine was a lack of noise. I'm flying along happy as a clam, when I swear the engine goes silent for a fraction of a second. Its almost like when the lights flicker and you ask someone else to make sure it wasn't just you, except I didn't have anyone else to ask! No change in any insturments and no chance in the feel of the plane so to this day I'm not sure if it was me or the plane.

My newbie's stupidist mistake

I departed Carlsbad on one of my first cross-country after getting my newly purchased RV home and started climbing up for the trip over the Guadalupe Mountains. At 7000' I called Center for flight following. It was the start of fall and the elevation gave me a chance to use the cabin heat for the first time. Right after pulling the cabin heat (and over the rugged mountains), I notice that my speed slowed. Odd. I assumed it was a change in the winds as I climbed. I got colder, added heat, and the plane slowed some more. At that point, my head went into the cockpit. All instruments seemed fine. Carb heat? No change. I took the heat off. Still I didn't gain speed. And, it wasn't just the GPS ground speed. It was also the air speed.

I called Center to let them know I was turning back to Carlsbad and experiencing some problems. A slow day, he tried to help me puzzle through the situation. I continued to stare at the gages. Then, I hear "Louise, is that you?" I didn't recognize the voice but said "Yep." "Well this is Scorch and I'm flying the Boeing out of El Paso right now. My guess is you have a fouled plug again. You should be fine taking it back to Carlsbad." I had met Ross about a week before when he helped me with a fouled plug on the ramp. It was remarkably reassuring to know that someone who knew me (albeit, just barely) was following my progress back to Carlsbad. The Guadalupe Mountains can seem awfully lonely when you're scared and I was grateful to Ross for chiming in.

Well, as I set up for the landing at Carlsbad and started to drop the flaps, I discovered that they were already mostly down. It turns out that I had inadvertently been bracing my hand on the electric flap switch each time I pulled out the cabin heat. With gloves on, I hadn't noticed the pressure and the flaps kept dropping. When I pushed the heat knob back in, I didn't brace on anything. An inspection on the ground and two more years of flying haven't revealed any resulting issues with the airplane.

Lessons? The main one is to also look outside the plane when a problem comes up. Assuming an engine problem, I had my (overwhelmed) head completely inside the cockpit. Before someone suggests that this story is a reason for manual flaps, I will point out that I found the manual flaps button too stiff for my thumb and will NOT own an RV with manual flaps (unless that spring was modified). Although I never had a repeat problem, the flap switch is now removed from the cabin heat and other knobs on the new panel.

Hi Louise!

I remember that incident well, and yeah, I think we were the only two people on the freq that day. I remember thinking a fouled plug might have been your problem, since that had been the previous trouble.

In hindsight, of course, I was not even close, and in spite of the reassurance you felt, I think you would have been better served if I had just shut up. As pilots, we feel this irresistable urge to "help" when one of us is in trouble. Usually, the only way we can "help" is by keying the mike and talking, which of course is usually no help at all. In this event, all I did (with good intentions) was possibly distract you from diagnosing the real problem.

Lesson learned: when you hear someone with their hands full of sick airplane, THINK before keying the mike and "helping." Sometimes the best thing we can do is stifle this well-meaning urge to ride to the rescue.

I'm supposed to know this stuff ... okay, I'm over it, I forgive myself!

See ya at BBRSP.

Tough call

Interesting thought, Ross. But, I know I sure felt better and the reality is that I wasn't in a serious problem so calm was the order of the day. Thinking there was a simple, inexpensive, and non-life-threatening answer to the problem might have made a difference in keeping me calm enough to make an uneventful flight and landing back home. Then again, I might have kept my mind more engaged in problem solving if I didn't think I had an answer. I just don't know.

RPM Drop

Winter flying in a Supercub here (in Canada) means you are bundled up a fair amount. I was out doing some circuits not too long ago, still relatively new to the plane (maybe 20 hrs). SOP for downwind procedures is to pull carb heat, scan the fuel gauges and instruments, go back to cold air on the carb and get ready to turn base. Well, in my bundled up state, when I went to slide the carb heat lever forward (it's on the left sidewall in kind of an awkward position to reach back with your left, throttle hand), I bumped the rear seat throttle back with my elbow. I'm expecting the RPM to increase by going back to cold air, and instead it drops ~200! Quickly look at oil pressure/temp (which I had just looked at anyway). Start cheating a little closer to the field on the downwind... just in case. I pulled the carb heat again... hit the throttle with my elbow again and noticed what I did.

Felt a little silly over that.

Another of mine....

Again, in the "sudden noise" category, I rolled for takeoff in my Grumman (again, think RV-6A slider) at Richard's Gebauer in Kansas City, in a hurry, after a quick fuel stop. Got about 50 feet in the air and suddenly heard a loud machine-gun-like sound on my left. "Fly the Airplane!" I yelled at myself, and called the tower for an immediate return to land. The noise continued, and on downwind, I figured it out - I had lost a #8 screw on the canopy slide-rail fairing -right at the front. The fairing strip pealed back and started vibrating, beating itself half to death - but threatening no real harm to the airframe's fly-ability.

The tower wanted to know if I needed "the equipment", and i told them "no, I just lost a fairing screw". Then they started peppering me with questions on the size of the screw, because they wanted to know if I'd FOD'ed the runway (they were still flying A-10's out of there at the time).

And then there was the time I added power in a C-150 trying to get out of a muddy tie down and heard a HORRIBLE noise coming from the right side. Yup - seat belt was hanging out the door! At least I was on the ground....

For Cessna's and RV-10's

Ironflight said:

And then there was the time I added power in a C-150 trying to get out of a muddy tie down and heard a HORRIBLE noise coming from the right side. Yup - seat belt was hanging out the door! At least I was on the ground....

Click to expand...

Coming home to MI from NY in our C-150 I departed on a normal nice day and when I leveled out and got up to cruise I got that same rat-a-tat noise on my side. There was another airport even nearer than the one I departed from. I landed and as soon as I opened the door to get out and look the plane over it was obvious - the extra length of seat belt was hanging out the door. I used some cable ties on both belts to double over the extra and it never happened again. I never heard the end of it though, because I was always chiding my wife about hers and let it happen to mine. It can't happen in the RV unless you don't use the shoulder strap, but I guess it could on a -10.

There I was, all alone...

Sitting on the can doing my business when there was this HUGE explosion from the kitchen.

I was living alone at the time in a small apartment and I was preparing dinner. Some of those pop-and-fresh rolls would be a good addition to my meal so I turned on the oven to warm it up and put the small container of rolls on top of the stove and headed for the bathroom.

As the oven heated up, so did the rolls, right to the point they started "rise". It was good thing I wasn't in the kitchen when they blew because there was dough all over the place; sealing, walls, floor, etc.

What a mess!

Sorry, not flying related, unless you consider how high I jumped off the toilet when it blew.

A buddy and I flew to Laughlin, NV for the new years day Sunday brunch with a bunch of fellow RV'rs. As we were leaving the casino one of the pilots asked me if I could deliver a Christmas gift to a fellow RV'r and his wife back in Phoenix who did not make it to the fly-out. I said, sure, picked up the gift bag from her on the ramp, and placed it in the baggage compartment of my 6.

Now, the wind was blowing thirty to thirty-five knots down the runway that day and after a very short takeoff roll (maybe thirty or forty feet) we were airborne and climbing at 1500 fpm with little forward motion on the upwind, when all of the sudden this terrible rattling sound starts to fill the cockpit. I'm thinking, "oh, cr@p, somethings definitely wrong here and I'm going to have to get this bird back on the ground PDQ in this wind...great". After a quick scan of the panel and a few turns of my head trying to localize the sound I looked over my shoulder to see the package that was charged to my care obviously rattling against the rear baggage compartment bulkhead...sigh of relief. Sorry, Mercedes, the gift bag ended up with a small hole in it, but the wine rack survived without a scratch.

Thats the only recent non-event I can think of, because I tend to forget these non-starters after a period of time - oh yeah, there was that time my Scott 3200 tailwheel (on a Maule) got stuck out of the breakout detent after takeoff and I thought my rudder was seriously screwed up. Boy, did my right leg ever get tired trying to hold trim until I landed. However, the real scary piloting experiences I've had over the years are all indelibly etched in my mind. Like a canopy full of F-4 Wild Weasel while flying a glider over the Tehachapi mountains many years ago...both of us taking evasive and looking right at each other as we passed, the sound of freedom echoing in my ears...YIKES!

Slightly OT, but relevant: How many of you guys/gals have been bounced by wise-@ss fighter jocks while flying through an MOA? It's happened to me more than once. It really got my attention when I had an F-16 practice an intercept on me and drop flares a couple of hundred yards in front of me.

Oh yeah, I had a second one. This one has been mentioned on another thread discussing a warmer cabin, but it works here also. We had purchased tapered bathtub stoppers to jam into the fresh air vents to keep cold air from leaking into the cabin on really cold days. So as we are cruising along and relaxing this rubber bullet shoots out of the vent and hits me in the gut. Noises were forthcoming as the shock of being hit by something began to register in my brain. My wife almost laughed herself into stomach cramps. Ya know folks, there seems to be a trend here as far as these incidents in our plane. I'm the one who gets uptight, not my wife who I'm trying to protect.

Best,

hmm..

MacNab said:

Slightly OT, but relevant: How many of you guys/gals have been bounced by wise-@@s fighter jocks while flying through an MOA? It's happened to me more than once. It really got my attention when I had an F-16 practice an intercept on me and drop flares a couple of hundred yards in front of me.

Click to expand...

Are you sure they were practicing?

ANR Headset

I ALWAYS make sure my ANR headsets are turned OFF before take off. I turn them on after everything is settled down on downwind.

I had a battery fail on my headset during a take off roll in an older 182. I was absolutley sure I had blown the engine and aborted the take off from about three feet off the runway. I was so surprised that there was no oil on the windshield etc.

It was just the ANR circuit running out of battery power but the change in the sound level caused me to abort an otherwise perfectly good take off. This could be dangerous..

Randy C

3 that have gotten my attention-

In holding pattern at 12,000? over the VOR at Midland (TX) in a T-37, in the weather, when a big weather balloon shot up past us, there were 3 or 4 more T-37s holding above us so we radioed a warning - none of the rest of them saw the balloon.

Flying a 12 mile arc as lead in flight of 2 T-38s going into Randolph AFB, wingman on my left clicked the radio and pointed to the right and behind me - a Mexicana 727 had taken position a hundred yards or so off the right wing - he cruised along with us for a couple miles and then headed off to SanAntonio International (I assume).

Flying about 3,500? near Possum Kingdom Lake (TX) in June - warm and sunny with lots of thermals - I saw something ahead of me that simply looked like a big ?fuzzy? patch of air. As I got closer I could see that was a column of hawks, many dozens, maybe hundreds, a lot more than I could count, riding a thermal - as the column rotated aound the thermal it looked like a tornado full of birds.

jcaplins said:

Are you sure they were practicing?

Click to expand...

Oh, yeah. I was monitoring guard frequency at the time and never heard a peep, not even a chuckle from the fighter driver (can these guys even communicate on 121.5?). I'm familiar with the Military/GA intercept procedures, and the other guy didn't complete them; and at the time I knew I wasn't anywhere I wasn't supposed to be. I kept my mouth shut and didn't transmit in case what the guy was doing was unauthorized. Didn't want to get anybody into trouble (including myself!), and besides, it was pretty

The way the whole thing unfolded is really a longer story, because we had been watching each other for several minutes, playing cat and mouse (me being the mouse running in a straight line ) before he finally did an intercept on me, coming in level from my four o'clock position. I think dropping the flares was a signal that I had just been smoked. After he dropped flares he did an abrupt climbing ninety degree turn and was gone...kind've a confusing signal , huh?

In this post 911 world we live in I'd assume the military needs to practice this sort of thing on occasion. Who better to practice it on than a real unsuspecting GA plane wandering through the MOA.

A couple things come to mind...

About 20 years ago, I was taking my future wife for a ride in a 152 near Denver. I think it was about our third or fourth time together. Anyway, as I rotated there was a bang, followed by a lot of wind noise. I continued the takeoff since I recalled hearing that sound before - the right hand door had popped open. I was glad the flight instructor had done that to me just a handful of months earlier. We climbed to altitude, booted in some rudder, and slammed it shut.

Another time, I was right seat with a friend in his P210, cruising along somewhere at altitude. I looked towards the left, and thought I saw something. I immediately looked to the right, and we had crossed paths with another plane probably only 75 feet vertical separation. We absolutely were timed perfectly - 75 feet and I wouldn't be writing this.

In the almost 1000 hours of RV time, I recall a couple. I was taking off on a winter day, nice weather, solo. As I just started climbing out, my engine monitor squawked at me. I saw the rpm flashing, for some reason the rpm was over the limit, I think it was around 2760 or something. Never did it again, but engine monitor alarms right on takeoff do get your attention.

In the motor getting quiet department, I was cruising along at 3 or 4 thousand feet, about 15 minutes from my home airport. The engine cut out for probably around 1/3 second. I don't mean reduced power, I mean not firing at all! Believe me, that fraction of a second seemed like a long time. A camshaft inside the mag had broken, and the Lasar system took just a split second to figure out something was wrong and give up, letting the other mag take over. A couple years later, it happened again, but it didn't faze me so much that time, but my px didn't appreciate it so much.

On a recent nice, sunny day, I was flying 3500 near Ardmore when there was this sudden awful, burnt smell that was sulfurish. I also felt a tiny bit lightheaded. Immediately opened the window vent and hit the autopilot in case it was a large exhaust leak - more fresh air in the plane. Then, as soon as it started, it stopped.

It took me 30 seconds to realize that I'd flown through the exhaust plume of some source at the refinery, only about a mile away. Upper level winds were light and not favorable to mixing. Once I realized it I had to laugh - part of my day job is computer dispersion modeling of industrial air pollution sources, and we see puffs like this that don't disperse in such conditions. But until then it was pretty hairy.


TODR

Okay what do you see?

I was cruising along under Class B airspace at 2500 ft. and had just been cleared to transit the Aurora Illinois airspace. While watching for other traffic I get a rather urgent warning of traffic at my 12 o'clock and REAL close. Problem is that I don't see anything at all in front of me. They ask me to ident (which I did) and they said it should be right in front of me at my altitude. Sever pucker factor until the controller says " no sign of traffic!" Not that it was no factor, just it was gone. Guess it was a false radar return but my neck hurt for a month after having to swivel around looking for invisible traffic!

Paul
pczar3
N694BP reserved

Going into Pittsburgh one night....


ATC: Bonanza XXX, you are cleared for the approach....

Bonanza XXX: Roger, understand I am cleared for the approach but I have a large balloon right in front of me.

ATC: Bonanza XXX, say again. (It was a clear January night, OAT about 10 below zero)

Bonanza XXX: I see a large balloon but it is beginning to move off to the right.

TWA XXX: (next in sequence) Bonanza, you are looking at the moon.

Bonanza XXX: Roger, understand you see the balloon also...

TWA XXX: It's the MOON, not a balloon!

ATC: Bonanza XXX, contact tower, maintain visual separation from the balloon.

Bonanza XXX: (sheepishly) Roger, will contact the tower....

ATC: TWA XXX do you have the Bonanza and the runway and the balloon in sight?

TWA XXX: Affirmative.... will accept a visual approach...

ATC: TWA XXX cleared for the visual approach, contact tower....

TWA XXX: It sure looks like a balloon but its a little cold tonight...bye-bye....

Night sky can be tricky....once saw a level (not descending) streak of light from left to right going about warp ten plus...several other guys saw it, no radar return what ever....another time one joined up on right wing over the gulf...again no radar return....there are UFO's cruisin' around, I've seen 'em.

Oops!

It was early one clear, beautiful fall morning and I was climbing out of OJC (Johnson County Executive - Olathe, KS) in a 182 on a business trip to Burlington, Iowa, a flight I had done many times before. I got everything cleaned up, established a nice climb, checked all the instruments, took a deep breath, and put my left arm up on the window sill. Unfortunately, the window latch was there waiting for me. My arm bumped the latch, which released the window! That window whipped open in a flash followed closely by my sectional!

Needless to say it scared the bejesus out of me! Once I got the window closed and the heartbeat back under 200 I realized I had a few hundred miles to go with no map. The nice thing about navigating around big rivers is they make great navigational aids so I turned about 10 degees farther east and then took a left at the Mississippi River and followed it to Burlington!

Maybe that's why I like my Garmin 496 so much - if it gets sucked out the window I'll have much bigger problems than navigation!

I just realized - if the hinge on the window had failed I might have seriously damaged the empanage! I think my heartbeat just went back up!

Following up on an ATC conversation like Davids, I overheard heard a conversation with Lincoln tower and a commuter pilot. The pilot asked ATC what the light was in the southern sky. He said it looked like lights, and wanted to make sure it wasn't traffic. "Negative on traffic, the light you see is Mars."

It was exceptionally bright that night, and if I hadn't watched it for 15 mins and saw that it did not move I could have been fooled also.

Transition training

On a cold Feb. day I was taking transition training with Mike Seager in Van's RV-9A N129RV out of Scappoose. First flight and Mike had done his one hour briefing and loads papers and log book into his large brief case and we get saddled up in the plane, taxi to the active and begin down the runway holding the stick back like Mike had showed me. Just as the nose gear left the ground, a loud BANG shocks both of us as I immediately pull power and bring the nose back to the runway. We are looking all around when we look at each other and both look back in the baggage compartment to see that his briefcase had tipped over (Mike had set this in the back standing up) onto the bare metal floor with an incredible noise. Mike laughs and says...go, go, go.....and off we went. What a way to start off transition training!

Pat Garboden
Ozark, MO
RV-9A N942WG 44 hours on the hobbs
RV-9A N942PT (reserved) wiring and paint prep stage

Minor incidents

I did most of my flight time while stationed at Holloman AFB in the mid 80's. I flew the base aero club 172's for close to 40 hrs before a second kid and a second car payment put an end to it. 3 incidents stick out in my mind.

The first was my own goof. 2nd or 3rd solo launch out of Holloman for some local practice.. Distracted by crossing traffic, I get airborne about 150 ft when the window next to me flies open quite loudly. Got the old blood going for a bit but just closed it and pressed on.

Second one was taking off with my instructor on my first XC when I called something on the runway as we were rotating. 2 **** coyotes chasing a rabbit.. That rabbit still owes me cuz the coyotes stopped and watched us fly by..

The third was my scariest. Took off with a slight cross wind on a warm morning. Compensated properly but still drifted right of the centerline. Just as I crossed a repair patch on the runway (asphalt type) I was all of maybe 30-40 feet in the air when the right wing started rising and full aileron wasn't stopping it all that well. It only stopped when I finally cleared the edge of that patch and the thermal let me go.

Well, here goes!

Nine years ago, when I was a newly minted Private Pilot of 4 months, I convinced my brother (non-pilot) to accompany me on a trip from Kansas City to Tulsa. I was flying a 1965 Skyhawk.

The most convenient airport for us was Tulsa Internationl Airport (Class C), which has two parallel north/south runways, spaced about a 1/2 mile apart. Generally, the western one was assigned to GA while the eastern one was for the airlines. The landing was uneventful and I loved showing my brother how we are treated at an FBO compared to airline travel. After a couple days in Tulsa we returned to the FBO. I had the lineman top off the tanks and add oil. I did my preflight, the tower cleared us for take-off, and I rolled onto the runway pushing in full throttle. The wind was straight down the runway at about 20 kts. I'm feeling great, we're going to have a short take-off roll, and my brother gets to experience all this, so I'm asking him to help me keep an eye out.

About 100 feet in the air, I begin to smell something unusual, like something burning, and I ask him if he smells it too. He thinks so. Next, I think I see smoke forming in the cockpit. He agrees that maybe he does too. By this time we're about 400-500' AGL. I contact the tower, tell them I have smoke in the cockpit, and that I need to return. The tower cleared me to land on any runway I chose. Having a parallel runway on my left side was a great comfort so I turned a left crosswind, and then turned final for the airlines' parallel runway. I didn't care about landing with a 20 kt. tailwind. I wanted on the ground right now. That tailwind brought me over the numbers quickly. In spite of being new, I did OK, landing on the numbers, no bouncing, and tracking straight down the runway, but I couldn't slow down very well. As we rolled along the runway we were immediately joined by two of the airport's fire trucks, big yellow vehicles with tires taller than the Skyhawk. They escorted us onto a taxiway, which turned out to be where all the airline passenger jets were being held up by our emergency. There were several of them formed in a conga line watching our parade. The tower had shut down the entire airport for us.

I determined that I didn't have any immediate heat from a fire so we told the tower we could taxi over to the GA FBO to check things out. The fire trucks escorted us over and the airport went back to active.

When we shut down my brother got out and made a show of kissing the ground in front of the firemen. As soon as we had touched down, while still rolling on the runway, he had gotten his camera out and been taking pictures of the parade, and he kept on taking during the inspection and paperwork. He was having a time while I was feeling inundated.

It turns out that the line boy had apparently spilled oil on the top of the engine when he was adding. So, I did smell something real, but imagined the smoke in the cockpit. It seemed real enough to me, and it gave me an overwhelming urge to get my brother safely on the ground.

It also gave my brother a story to tell, with pictures; and since we worked at the same office I got to sit through the telling many times. He has never flown with me again.

Better safe than sorry, but what a memory with pictures. My brother and I are the best of friends and I'm sure I'll get him back in the air with me sometime this year.

So, now, I always add my own oil, even at the fancy FBOs and, I supervise the fuel delivery, just in case.

Anyway, that's mine.

On the topic of things that turned out to be nothing...

About 10 years ago I took a night cross-country from Lantana FL to somewhere in central Florida. It was in a 172 and I remember the instructor telling me that the instrument panel lights in this plane were INOP, but that it shouldn't pose a problem as he had two flashlights with him onboard. I recall the night well; thunderstorms had moved through late in day an left the smoothest air I have ever flown in behind them. The flight to our destination was uneventful and I was able to function properly with my instructor holding the flashlight when and where I needed it. We were on our return trip back to Lantana late in the evening when all of a sudden you could hear and feel the pitch and airspeed change. The symptoms very quickly went away but it was enough to get our attention.

In a concerned voice my instructor said, "What's going on?" To which I exclaimed, "I don't know!". He turned on his flashlight to see the airspeed a bit slower than cruise but climbing, and us off altitude a tiny bit. I asked if he had touched the controls, and he said he had not. I believed him because I had been holding the yoke firmly in my hand, and it hadn't moved at all. He kept the flashlight on as eveything returned to normal and we quickly settled back into cruise mode. He then turned the flashlight back off, and we went on our happy way in the dark. After a few minutes had gone by, it happened again. The pitch of the airplane changed slightly, and your could hear and feel a change in airspeed. The deviation only lasted seconds, but it was definately enough to notice, especially on a night as smooth as this. Again my instructor asked in a now very concerned tone, "What's going on, what are you doing?!?!" to which I again responded "I don't know, I am not doing a thing!!!". He swithed the light on again, and sure enough, we were again slightly off altitude and airspeed, so once again I made corrections to get us back on track. We only had about 20 minutes remaining to our destination, and after a brief discussion we agreed to cautiously proceed.

He turned the flashlight off and we were again back into cruise mode. During the cruise portions of the flight he had been turning on his flashlight every minute or two so we could do an instrument scan, but at this point I thought it would be a good idea for me to have my own flashlight ready. Unknown to my instructor, I reached into the map pocket on the door and retreived the flashlight I had placed there before the flight. It was now in my hand and at at the ready if we encountered this problem again.

Sure enough, after two more minutes of cruise it happened again. As soon as I noticed it starting I quickly turned on my flashlight to find my instructors hand on the flap lever. "BUSTED!" I yelled. In the darkness of the cockpit he had been VERY quickly actuating the flaps down and up just a few degrees. He was doing this just to mess with me. It was such a short momentary application of the flaps that he could turn his flashlight on almost immediately and his hand was nowhere near the flap switch. We had a real good laugh over this.

N941WR said:

Sitting on the can doing my business when there was this HUGE explosion from the kitchen.

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Food huh? Okay, I'll bite (ha!).
I once microwaved a 'boil-in-the-bag' kipper. Forgot to piece the bag and left it in there way too long away. Ka-BOOOM!!!! I let the cats clean the microwave for me: they loved it

Planes; skydiving yesterday it suddenly went very quite passing through around 6000ft or so. Jumper up front of the C185 next to the pilot had lent back to far and closed the mixture! Sure got everyone's attention for a second! I was thinking perhaps I should connect up the remaining clips on my tendem passenger in front of me. Pilot was right on to it though. Same thing happened on the same load, same jumper when he moved to exit the a/c. Except this time pilot was pulling the control back out when the jumper left and went full lean; engine redline, plane surged; exciting times! Pilot not impressed with jumper.

Microlights (3-axis); second solo, miles from the airport over tree covered hills and the engine starts to run real rough and lose power. I've got all of a dozen hours or so. Yeah, I shouldn't have been where I was. Airspeed dropping but still enough to maintain a slight climb so I crept up from around 1500ft to 3500ft on my way back to the airport. Called for an immediate landing and was a little peeved when another plane (not a microlight) cut me off on my very short base/final turn and took the runway from me. Luckily he moved off quickly and I continued to a lnding on the later half of the runway. Apparently it was a fouled plug. That was also (I think) my last microlight flight, not because of that incident but simply because I got involved in other things. Funny it worked out that way though.

Cruising in our RV6A on a rainy afternoon, ceiling around 3000 feet with my older son in the plane. Had the airport in site at about 3 miles, I was at 1500 feet.

The engine quit!! My heart just about jumped out of my chest. I hit the fuel pump, switched tanks, and looked for a place to land. The engine started again! The gauges said I had at lease 6 gallons left in that tank???

Turns out we had about one fuel tester of water in the tank ? capacitive fuel level probes don?t? like water. Our plane had been sitting out side the night before in the rain. The fuel level gauge starting working correctly after a couple of tanks of fuel.


Lesson ? test your fuel before every fight.

Runup - We don't need no stinkin runup!

The worst that's happened to me in my limited amount of flight hours...

I'm doing some touch and goes at KUAO, about a year after I received my private ticket. There's several of us in the pattern, we're all talking and having a good time. As it was kind of busy, I'm advising for the turn to each leg (Cessna xxx turning downwind, base, final. etc.). I announced "turning final" for about the third time, set full flaps cause I tend to fly a tight pattern, and fussed with the power, trying to hit the numbers better than the last time.

The approach to 17 is looking good, I'm well past the orange safety balls on the power lines, when I see someone in a high wing making a fast taxi up to 17. I'm now about 75' agl when I blurt "What the H..."! This knuckle head ain't stopping! He just pulls a 180 on to the runway and starts his takeoff roll. NO runup, no announcement, just acting like he's the only person at the airport. I guess he did his runup at the ramp.

What was funny was the brain seize I had. Oh, the flight safety part was working at full speed, I fire-walled the throttle, set flaps 10, and smoothly established a gentle climbing right turn to parallel the runway heading. No, the seize up was with the trigger finger on the comm. It was kind of like that scene in the first Terminator movie, where Arnold was in that scummy hotel room, and someone had just yelled something from across the hall. He scans his brain for just the right insult to hurl back. I went through about three or four possibles, from "you stupid %^&%%&$ %^^% &&*( #$%^@, and your mother too!", to something a bit milder "you stupid moron!"

I finally squeaked out: "Cessna xxx aborting landing, going around due to traffic on runway." My CFI had failed to instruct me on the fine art of bitching someone out on the CTAF.

The guy never did talk to traffic. Wonder if he mis-set his radio?

When I got back to home base, there were no CFI's hanging out, so I asked the FBO owner what he would have done. "You didn't tell him off? I would have cussed him good!"

Honk Honk

My 1st flight as a bonafide Private Pilot with both my parents aboard in a C172. We are on a 1/4 mile final at Apple Valley, Ca. and my Mom leans forward from the back seat and says "hey, theres someone passing you". That got my attention, short final, low altitude not a lot of manuevering room. I'm looking all over and ask her where are they ? She says "oh I don't see them but don't you hear them honking" She thinks the stall warning chirping sounded like a horn honking and decides its a good time to make a joke. I never let her forget that.

There I was on a beautiful early morning somewhere in 1982 or 3 turning final at KSC after a (so far) successful RTLS abort in the the Space Shuttle simulator at JSC, when the ship stopped descending and turning. For those who don't know, the descent rate on the Shuttle is considerable higher than the average RV.

I contacted the console operator & reported my situation. He acknowledged, and asked if I'd like some "vent" in order to attempt a go-around. In the real Shuttle, there is no boost available during descent and approach, but we did have some available in the simulators. "Vent" was the term used for boost, and was usually around 500k lbs/sec.

I agreed, but even though I was still in approach attitude, the ship continued to climb and turned very slowly, if at all.
I don't recall any exact climb or turn rates as I was busy trying to initiate a successful go-around. (Perhaps my missing pilot has better recall).

Eventually, I ended up (& I do mean UP!) looking down on the tip of southern Florida and Lake Okeechobee as they shrank rapidly, with the nose of the ship nearly vertical, while watching the altimeter click off about 10 miles per second climb rate.

At this time, I think my heart rate was tracking that rate about the same. I thought that I was going to burn up on re-entry, for at this altitude (>120 miles), I was supposed to be doing about 17,600 mph, while I was nowhere near what I knew to be sufficient for a successful re-entry.

At this moment, the console operator asked if I'd like to abort the sim. Man, Did I ever! I REALLY was beginning to think I was toast. I regret that I didn't buy him a case of his favorite brew. I was just too grateful to be alive & have another chance.

And that, dear friends, is why we have simulators. )

Several years ago I was on a BFR with a flight instructor. After doing the usual air work, including steep turns and stalls, we started out on a short cross country leg. As I was dutifully setting up the VOR and checking the map, I heard a clank sound. A minute or two later I heard it again - a slight metallic clank. I checked the gauges and everything looked OK. A few minutes later it began again.
I became increasingly distracted and was having trouble maintaining a steady course and heading while trying to figure out what the noise was. After a few minutes my instructor said, "How about you reach behind your seat and move the tow bar. That noise its making is driving me crazy."

I was asleep in the crew bunk one night after running the Engineer?s panel during a late night departure from the US to someplace in Europe. I never really slept real well in the bunk and the sudden Bang I heard jarred me to eyes wide open and reaching for the quickdone O2 mask. The inner pane of the pilots windshield had shattered. That sure got our attention for the moment but since it was the inner pane I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Nothing you could do about it at 35K in the middle of the ocean anyway.

While waiting for the Cirrus in front of me to do his run up on the north end of Fredricksburg's rnway, a dark cloud covered his plane and then mine. I was glad my window was closed when I realized it was a giant swarm of bees. They went on by and the Cirrus took off. I completed my pre-flight rituals, took the runway and took off. Just as I pulled back on the yoke of the 172, I felt like a hit 500 marbles as I slammed into the same swarm of bees. The scarey part was now that I was moving, about 25 stunned bees came in through the front and rear seat vents. My wife and two kids,( 7 and 10yrs of age) were screaming at the top of their lungs and I'm sure making their way to the exits just as the mains lifted off. A simple take off can sure require intense concentration while the world collapses around you. I will never forget the look of sheer terror in a 7 y/o's eyes as he is strapped to a seat with bees (pleural) climbing up his shirt.

I was flying back home from florida last january, and was about 2 miles south of hartsfield going over the top at 5500' in my cherokee. The pilot's side window cracked across from the vent to the edge, the wind got under it, and it departed.

C-150 during pilot training with instructor. I learned to fly at a Navy base which means there are 3 arresting wires on the runway, both approach ends and the center. We were taught to take the wire between the doughnuts which are 4 or 5 inch diameter grommet-like chuncks of rubber every 10 to 15feet apart. They position the wire up above the surface so tail hooks can catch it. As a result, we had to be very carefull with our takeoffs and landings in order to steer around the "obstacles".

During a landing roll out, below flying speed but still fast enough to matter, a gust of wind pushed us over several feet and the left main hit a doughnut dead center. The result found us about 10 feet in the air at a 45 degree heading off the runway heading.. The instructor didn't have time to react but I did have enought sense to firewall the throttle and keep the wings level and fly it back down in ground effect. A good thing about Navy fields is that the runways are also 250 wide. I'm living proof that a C-150 can get stopped in under 200 feet. We stopped about 2 feet short of the shoulder.

Another student and instructor was doing a T & G and stopped on the runway. Tower came up and said they were cleared for a T&G, not a stop and go. When the aircraft didn't didn't start moving, tower asked if they had a problem. The pilots asked to shut down on the active. Now the tower was not too happy about this, and rightfully so, and denied the request. The pilots then sheepishly admitted they were stuck on the arresting cable and could not move. I don't know if they logged an arrested landing. I didn't log a cat shot either.

Jekyll

tmbg said:

I was flying back home from florida last january, and was about 2 miles south of hartsfield going over the top at 5500' in my cherokee. The pilot's side window cracked across from the vent to the edge, the wind got under it, and it departed.

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Yikes. Hopefully there were no unlucky people on the ground!

Mike

Attacked by an RC airplane?

On my last leg from Seattle into OSH for the fly-in on a hot summer morning suddenly I heard an RC airplane engine right behind me and loud! My wife heard it as well and we began looking around and behind us as best we could in my RV7. Nothing was visible but I have flown RC for a long time and know that sound! I checked engine instruments and flight data and all looked normal but it was still there and still loud! What kind of idiot would fly an RC close to a real airplane? I was low and slow near Ripon so while not likely, it seemed possible. Maneuvering with the rudder I discovered I could change the pitch of the rc engine but my airplane was unaffected otherwise. I decided to ignore it and concentrate on landing at OSH (the closest airport). After landing I discovered a piece of duct tape that I placed under the wing on the rear end of rubber molding of the intersection fairing had loosened in the heat. It had became an intake scoop and duck bill vibrator at the exit port. One quick pull on the duct tape and the "RC airplane engine" never came back to haunt me. Coming in over Ripon was the last place I needed to have an extra distraction!
John Adams